DJ Disk is a San Francisco Bay Area turntablist of Panamanian, Colombian, and Nicaraguan descent. Born Luis Quintanilla on October 7, 1970, in San Francisco, Disk began scratching and mixing vinyl at a young age. In 1992 he joined his long-time friend DJ Qbert among the Rock Steady Crew DJs, later changing the group's name to the Invisibl Skratch Piklz.
As a founding member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Disk has been an enormously influential DJ and is credited with inventing the 2 Click Orbit, the echo fade technique and the 2 Click Flare Lazer Orbit techniques. He was later a founding member of El Stew, which, according to Allmusic, "dealt with the more experimental side of electronic music."
In addition to extensive hip hop work with the Piklz and others, Disk has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians working in other genres, including Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Buckethead, Zakir Hussain, Mike Patton, Norah Jones, Flavor Flav, Rancid, Primus, and Jack DeJohnette. He has been involved in over seventy recordings, and has performed in over fifteen countries. While not on tour, he lives in his hometown of San Francisco where he records and teaches turntablism. DJ Disk originated the term "turntablist", to differentiate a DJ who plays a role in a band, using the turntable as a musical instrument, from a DJ who mixes and blends vinyl. (see competing claims).